


Augmented

by Litttleribs



Category: Terminator (Movies), Terminator: Dark Fate
Genre: Grace is best guard dog, Lightly Implied Relationship, Make her an augment, This is just a one shot but much more is coming in a later fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-22
Updated: 2019-11-22
Packaged: 2021-02-25 22:00:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 743
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21522583
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Litttleribs/pseuds/Litttleribs
Summary: One-Shot on the events that took place after Grace's future-flashback.
Relationships: Grace/Dani Ramos
Comments: 3
Kudos: 77





	Augmented

People talk about the worst pain they've ever been in. 

  
Car crashes, hospital visits, freak accidents. How they thought they were going to die. Maybe even a little embellishment to keep their listeners captivated, all leading to the present, to how they recovered and went back to living their normal lives. Or in some cases, how their lives changed forever. What they fail to mention is that even at the brink of what could be death, they don't fully believe that it will be the end. That there is tha smallest glimmer of hope that there will be and end to the pain. That things will turn around to get them to that happy end.

  
In the future, it's an endless cycle. There is no room for hope, for that neatly packaged silver lining of normalcy brimming the horizon. Survival tends to be a bottomless pit, perhaps with dips and caverns that provide some things to break the fall, but the direction is inevitably downwards. 

  
Survival is the only hope... with no promise of anything better.

  
"Hold still, this is gonna hurt like Hell."

  
The words came to Grace through muffled ears, over deafening explosions that shook the bunker and the cries from injured comrades. Seconds later, a spike of pain thrust her back into full consciousness, releasing a guttural scream that tapered off into a sob.

  
She knew she was dying. Frantic, she looked around for her Commander. She had to make sure she was safe, still alive. Someone noticed, and affirmed that her efforts had brought her to safety. Through blood and sweat soaked bangs she could make out the image of her a few feet away on the stretcher, face obstructed by bandages and medical equipment in feeble attempts to keep her alive. 

  
She didn't look alive.

  
The sight alone was enough to bring another rush of panic. The medic's hands pushed her down, Grace groaning out another agonizing bout of pain, the blood oozing from her torso with the movement. She had seconds left, maybe minutes. Whatever treatment they were giving her would be useless.  
"I-".. she swallowed a mouthful of blood as her mind struggled to form words in the sea of confusion and panic of the moment. She had to stay alive. This hadn't been enough.  
"I volunteer! Make me an augment!"

  
The medic's face fell. Dissappointment, probably. It was like checking into Death Row.

  
The last thing she saw was Commander Ramos-Dani. She held onto that sight until consciousness took her.. a silent hope that Dani would see the end of this even if Grace wouldn't.

The next countless hours were like a dead sleep punctuated with bright lights, the sharp smell of antiseptic. Half waking to hands scrubbing her down and the cold surface of an operating table. They didn't have the luxury of many sheets here, only what they needed to keep a sterile-as-possible environment in a dying world.  
There was no period of rest between healing enough to undergo the procedure. Later she would find that they kept her in a medically induced coma to heal enough so that she wouldn't die during the operation. She would also speculate that it was to keep her from quite literally bolting to her Commander's side. She was faithful to a fault, overprotective, even. It was odd quirk of sorts among the soldiers.

  
A perk of the future was rapid healing methods. In only a matter of days was she ready to undergo Augmentation, an advanced procedure to make her able to fight back- but never designed to win against the machines. Death would still be inevitable.

  
She roused enough to feel the markers delicately scoring her body- outlining where they would cut to give her a new skeleton to support the old one. Bright lights again. For a moment she wondered where Dani was. If there was a chance she had been watching.

  
She had always rejected the possibility of Grace being an augment. Said she was stubborn and reckless. Perhaps she was right. But after that brush with death.. Grace couldn't stand it anymore. She wasn't the ideal soldier who attacked with stealth and clean dexterity. But she was fierce enough to stand against them no matter the odds. At least this would up her chance a fraction.

  
Her last words were only a whisper against the plastic anesthesia mask, drifting off as the heavy blanket of sleep bore down on her.

  
"I'm sorry..."

**Author's Note:**

> I have so many ideas on what Grace and Commander Dani's relationship must have been like in the future. I am eager to elaborate on that in a future story. Something tells me that Grace becoming an augment would not be Dani's first choice of action, for a variety of reasons.


End file.
